Finance Score: 1
Governance Score: -1
Support Score: 6
  • Multiple Deficits: -2
  • Fundraising costs low: +3
  • Only 4 Trustees: -1
  • Good trustee age range: +3
  • All male board: -3
  • Grant maker support: +6
Overall GiG Score: 6 ?

ABSOLUTE RETURN FOR KIDS (ARK) 

Ark is an education charity that exists to make sure that all children, regardless of their background, have access to a great education and real choices in life. Ark incubates, launches and scales ventures that share our mission and values.
Analysis by Giving is Great

Positives:

  • Spending has increased over the last 3 years relative to the previous period
  • Fundraising costs are low relative to funds raised
  • A significant proportion of recent income was derived from major grant makers including the Government

Regulatory & Governance issues to consider:

  • There are only 4 trustees
  • The Board is completely male

Financial issues to consider:

  • On several occasions in recent years income has been less than spending
Established: 21 years

www.arkonline.org

info@arkonline.org

02031160800

Charity Commission for England and WalesCompanies HouseFacebookX
UN SDGs
?

Financial Data ?

Income & Spending ?
Sources of Income ?
Y/E Income
£k
Spending
£k
Surplus/
Deficit
Fundraising
Cost £k
Total
Funds £k
Unrestricted
Funds £k
Mths
Rsrvs
Staff Volun-
teers
31/08/22£24,388£24,150£238£823£35,035£4,1612.11100
31/08/21£35,012£25,305£9,707£581£32,615£2,4861.21050
31/08/20£13,687£16,057£-2,370£583£2,010£9560.7440
31/08/19£15,699£18,520£-2,821£541£3,312£2,2081.4410
31/08/18£14,668£16,662£-1,994£802£5,088£2,2881.6420
31/08/17£16,574£19,698£-3,124£709£6,268£5,3063.2440
31/08/16£12,938£15,221£-2,283£821£8,111£8,0056.3340
31/08/15£13,006£14,821£-1,815£1,015£8,872£8,1766.6330
31/08/14£9,503£13,979£-4,476£766£8,630£7,9646.8300
31/08/13£12,959£4,936£8,023£1,035£12,720£12,08529.4320
31/08/12*£17,247£15,109£2,138£5,829£15,829£11,4549.1320
31/08/11£14,393£26,809£-12,416£6,947£13,170£6,3672.8260
31/08/10£13,593£12,932£661£5,678£24,885£15,63714.5240
31/08/09£19,363£15,169£4,194£2,884£23,205£16,40513270
31/08/08£38,415£33,081£5,334£5,192£18,291£8,7313.2250
31/08/07?*£32,701£22,004£10,697£4,619£32,400£9,7195.32320
30/09/06£20,530£21,469£-939£0£0£0n/a00
30/09/05£10,448£7,376£3,072£0£0£0n/a00
30/09/04£5,294£1,215£4,080£0£0£0n/a00

Financial Ratios
Fundraising Costs/Relevant Income: 6.3%
Fundraising Costs/Total Spending: 3.7%
Senior Staff Costs/Total Spending: 8%
Highest pay band: £200,000-£250,000
Liabilities/Assets: 57%
Liabilities/Income: 187%
Unrestricted Funds/Total Funds: 12%
Reserves/Spending: 2.1 months
Net Current Assets/Spending: 1 months
Quick Ratio: 0.7
Asset Split ?
Listed activities
  • Education/Training
  • General Charitable Purposes
  • The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty
How it operates
  • Makes Grants to Organisations
  • Other charitable activities
  • Provides human resources
  • Provides services
  • Sponsors or undertakes research
Where it operates
  • India, South Africa, Throughout England, Uganda,
Who it helps
  • Children/Young People
Who works here?
  • 110 employees

Who's supporting them? ?

Donations from Grant Makers ?

We have details on the following significant donations. Multi-year donations are allocated to the years for which they are earmarked.

Major supporters in last 5 years
Garfield Weston Foundation£2,300,000
The Charity of Sir Richard Whittington£338,000
ZING£35,000
Youth Music£25,000
Specific Donations
Amount When
Months
To be used for
ZING - Third year of core funding toward the expansion of the Get Further tutoring programme, channelled through Ark
£35,000 01/02/2021
12
Year three of core funding toward the development and scaling of Get Further's catch-up maths and english tuition programme, for students in further education. This funding round has been passed ....more
Garfield Weston Foundation - Major Grants award
£2,000,000 06/11/2020
EDCITY
Youth Music - Young Music Leader Programme
£25,000 30/10/2020
Young Music Leader Programme
The Charity of Sir Richard Whittington - Grant to Absolute Return for Kids
£338,000 06/03/2020
36
Development and delivery of an integrated early years education programme aimed at improving early years provision in disadvantaged communities and closing the attainment gap.
Garfield Weston Foundation - Major Grants award
£300,000 28/02/2020
Whatever It Takes
Culham St Gabriel's Trust - A 'Big Ideas' Curriculum for RE
£23,000 10/07/2018
To create a fully resourced Key Stage 4 curriculum, informed by best practice in RE and evidence of how students learn.
ZING - Assembly School MIS development
£77,000 01/10/2017
12
Funding to develop Assembly: a secure, cloud-based platform that connects to schools' Management Information Systems and extracts key elements of school data
ZING - Assembly School MIS development
£101,000 01/12/2016
12
Funding to develop Assembly: a secure, cloud-based platform that connects to schools' Management Information Systems and extracts key elements of school data
ZING - Institute for Teaching seed funding
£50,000 01/12/2016
12
Seed funding for a new higher education institution with a mission to train and develop expert teachers who work where they are needed most
ZING - Assembly School MIS development
£143,000 01/09/2015
12
Funding to develop Assembly: a secure, cloud-based platform that connects to schools' Management Information Systems and extracts key elements of school data
Show more rows

Data sourced from Donors via 360 Giving

How is it governed?

Trustees (4)
Gender Split

Age Range of Trustees: 43-66
Legal constitution
  • Charitable company registered in England & Wales on 09/01/2003, number: 1095322
  • Registered at Companies House on 13/11/2002, number: 04589451
Gift Aid
  • Registered with HMRC for Gift Aid
Policies in force
  • Complaints handling
  • Conflicting interests
  • Investment
  • Paying staff
  • Risk management
  • Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
Filing Record
19 returns made; AR12: 8 days late, AR07: 7 days late,
Main office

Absolute Return for Kids
The Yellow Building
Monsoon Building
1 Nicholas Road
LONDON
W11 4AN

Objectives

FOR SUCH EXCLUSIVELY CHARITABLE PURPOSES FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC IN ANY PART OF THE WORLD AS THE DIRECTORS MAY IN THEIR ABSOLUTE DISCRETION THINK FIT.

Defined Area of Benefit:

ANY PART OF THE WORLD

Data Sources

Charity Commission for England and Wales
360 Giving
CharityBase
Authorised officials of this charity can add information to this page (including a Donate Now button) for no cost

Tips for Selecting Charities

Which areas of philanthropy are most effective?
The text of this post is taken from an article on the Effective Altruism forum. It suggests that you can achieve the most impact by supporting causes that fight extreme poverty, improving animal welfare....more
Our Top Tips for Philanthropy
Here are some ideas to help you gain more satisfaction from your philanthropy and confidence that the causes you have selected are impactful. Engage your brain, as well as your heart You....more
How to become a Philanthropist
In this Blog we outline a strategy to help people who are new to philanthropy and for those who feel dissatisfied with the impact they are having. Effective philanthropy is immensely rewarding for donors,....more

Giving is Great